"The maggots eat consumer food waste and are fed to the chicken and fish in turn. It's a win-win all around."

So we eat chicken and fish that eat larva that eat garbage. I don't feel like much of a winner.

As has been mentioned, these are a normal part of a chicken's diet.. In fact, I have it on excellent feathered authority that maggots are considered a delicacy by chickens.. Just watch them fight over a pint of them.

I didn't really understand the 'fountain' analogy, so I went ahead and skimmed the article itself. If I understood it correctly, the following is true:

* The larvae are always moving, i.e. researchers usually measure flow, Q.* The larvae fill all possible surface on the food and Q remains about steady until there is no more surface to fill.* The larvae frequently stop eating (or so they think, when a larva isn't in contact with the food, they assume it's not eating, they confirmed this by watching a single larva eat, fascinating stuff about their jaws and stuff), they eat in bursts of 5+-8min and take 5+-10min breaks.* When a larva stops eating, a hungry larva will push it and get its place.* The 'fountain' analogy simply means that given a horizontal piece of food, the larvae want to collectively get access to as much of the surface area as possible, so they pile up, forming a fountain. See Figure 6 of the DOI. No idea why that wasn't in the Ars article, it's the most descriptive image of them all.

Also, turns out around 3500 larvae is a pint (600ml). I'll be sure to remember that the next time I'm in the pub!

I'm thinking the publican will give a funny look if you ask for a pint of maggots.

- creation of feedstock for animals, people, or even biodiesel production- near zero input of any additional electricity or water- scalable, self-sustaining, low tech, with readily available sources of waste that people may even pay to have removed.

BSFL are more paletable to chickens than humans, but based on the younger generation's desire for lower-impact/alternative protein sources, the existence of products like Soylent and the money being invested in lab-grown meat, I'd think that it's highly likely that insect-derived processed/powdered protein products will be in regular stores within a decade.

Heck, years ago a buddy of mine took a three week trip to California, and I volunteered to feed his chickens. No problems the first couple of days, then as I was bent over the metal trash can that held the feed, Mr. Rooster decided to go into attack mode and jumped on my back. I was pecked, spurred, and was standing there using the lid to the trash can like a shield fending off this critter. Every day after that was the same. It became a pain in the rear end, some days literally. When he got back he just laughed and said it never happened to him. A few weeks later he said it attacked his sister. A few weeks after that I went by to have a few beers and we sat in the yard and grilled chicken. Yep, he finally became a victim and ended it. So, the lesson is, if you're unable to fight back, a chicken will be just as happy to eat you as vice versa.

Housefly controlBlack soldier fly larvae are a competitor to housefly larvae (Musca domestica), as they make manure more liquid and thus less suitable for housefly larvae. Their presence is also believed to inhibit ovipositing by the housefly. For instance, they have been shown to reduce the housefly population of pig or poultry manure by 94-100%. As a result, they can help to control housefly populations in livestock farms and in households with poor sanitation, thereby improving the health status of animals and people since the housefly is a major vector of disease (Sheppard et al., 1994; Newton et al., 2005).

Low pathogenicityUnlike other fly species, Hermetia illucens is not a disease vector: not only the eggs are never laid on decaying organic material, but, since the adult fly cannot eat due to its lack of functioning mouthparts, it does not come in contact with unsanitary waste materials. Additionally, the larvae modify the microflora of manure, potentially reducing harmful bacteria such as Escherichia coli 0157:H7 and Salmonella enterica (van Huis et al., 2013). It has been suggested that the larvae contain natural antibiotics (Newton et al., 2008)."

When I read this article, the first thing that came to mind was a bad horror movie where someone is pushed into a vat of larvae and gets eaten.

Maggots won't eat live tissue. In some cases they're actually used to treat gangrene (where some tissue on the body has died due to injury/frostbite/etc and starts to rot and becomes a breeding ground for bacteria) since the maggots will eat the dead flesh without harming the live tissue.

Don’t they turn into flies at some point?? How can you keep that many maggots around?

At some point they start trying to find humid, shelter spaces to pupate. Grub composting bins are designed so that when the maggots start this process they fall into collection bins. Then you pull the bin out and do whatever you're going to do with the maggots, like feed 'em to chickens or fish.

I think a common-ish aquaponics setup is to keep fish, with the water being used to fertilize and water plants, the plant waste being used to feed soldier fly grubs, and the captured grubs being fed to the fish. The main outputs are fish and veggies.

One time I found a bunch of maggots on a rotting toad carcass. I let them eat the carcass, which took about an hour, then sprinkled them with diatom powder. They all shriveled up and died within a matter of about fifteen minutes. I've never been able to kill more flies in one blow than I did that day.

BSFL are more paletable to chickens than humans, but based on the younger generation's desire for lower-impact/alternative protein sources, the existence of products like Soylent and the money being invested in lab-grown meat, I'd think that it's highly likely that insect-derived processed/powdered protein products will be in regular stores within a decade.

One of the supermarkets I sometimes frequent had actual maggots for sale some 6 months ago, of the larger variety though (3-4 cm long, 0,5-1 cm thick). They were advertised with a sign exclaiming “Try a meatfree day!”. I mean, I’m all for reducing meat consumption but eating maggots, thanks but no thanks...

When I read this article, the first thing that came to mind was a bad horror movie where someone is pushed into a vat of larvae and gets eaten.

Maggots won't eat live tissue. In some cases they're actually used to treat gangrene (where some tissue on the body has died due to injury/frostbite/etc and starts to rot and becomes a breeding ground for bacteria) since the maggots will eat the dead flesh without harming the live tissue.

Some maggots restrict themselves to dead tissue. Others help keep the mortalitity stats for myiasis up. Obviously you can choose the correct ones when deliberately using them to debride wounds; but their less picky counterparts cause a lot of damage to livestock and contribute a persistent supply of ghastly tropical medicine case reports

* The 'fountain' analogy simply means that given a horizontal piece of food, the larvae want to collectively get access to as much of the surface area as possible, so they pile up, forming a fountain. See Figure 6 of the DOI. No idea why that wasn't in the Ars article, it's the most descriptive image of them all.

Somehow, the velocity vector plot of the "maggot fountain" is more unsettling than the video of it in action.

BSFL are more paletable to chickens than humans, but based on the younger generation's desire for lower-impact/alternative protein sources, the existence of products like Soylent and the money being invested in lab-grown meat, I'd think that it's highly likely that insect-derived processed/powdered protein products will be in regular stores within a decade.

One of the supermarkets I sometimes frequent had actual maggots for sale some 6 months ago, of the larger variety though (3-4 cm long, 0,5-1 cm thick). They were advertised with a sign exclaiming “Try a meatfree day!”. I mean, I’m all for reducing meat consumption but eating maggots, thanks but no thanks...

* The 'fountain' analogy simply means that given a horizontal piece of food, the larvae want to collectively get access to as much of the surface area as possible, so they pile up, forming a fountain. See Figure 6 of the DOI. No idea why that wasn't in the Ars article, it's the most descriptive image of them all.

Somehow, the velocity vector plot of the "maggot fountain" is more unsettling than the video of it in action.

And it does more justice to the headline (otherwise it's too close to being one of those "how" headlines followed by dissatisfying "what" article).

For entertaining prior art in the accelerated decay genre, Peter Greenaway's third feature A Zed and Two Noughts is required viewing. Best watched with a pint or two.

* The 'fountain' analogy simply means that given a horizontal piece of food, the larvae want to collectively get access to as much of the surface area as possible, so they pile up, forming a fountain. See Figure 6 of the DOI. No idea why that wasn't in the Ars article, it's the most descriptive image of them all.

Somehow, the velocity vector plot of the "maggot fountain" is more unsettling than the video of it in action.

And it does more justice to the headline (otherwise it's too close to being one of those "how" headlines followed by dissatisfying "what" article).

For entertaining prior art in the accelerated decay genre, Peter Greenaway's third feature A Zed and Two Noughts is required viewing. Best watched with a pint or two.

* The 'fountain' analogy simply means that given a horizontal piece of food, the larvae want to collectively get access to as much of the surface area as possible, so they pile up, forming a fountain. See Figure 6 of the DOI. No idea why that wasn't in the Ars article, it's the most descriptive image of them all.

Somehow, the velocity vector plot of the "maggot fountain" is more unsettling than the video of it in action.

And it does more justice to the headline (otherwise it's too close to being one of those "how" headlines followed by dissatisfying "what" article).

For entertaining prior art in the accelerated decay genre, Peter Greenaway's third feature A Zed and Two Noughts is required viewing. Best watched with a pint or two.